The present invention relates to an adsorption pen, and more particularly to an adsorption pen improved in operability for handling wafers, pellets cut from a wafer and IC packages with sealed pellets.
In the processes for manufacturing various semiconductor devices, the adsorption pen is used for handling wafers, pellets cut from a wafer and IC packages with sealed pellets. In Japanese laid-open patent publication No. 6-163672, it is disclosed that the conventional adsorption pen has the following structure. FIG. 1 is a cross sectional elevation view illustrative of the conventional adsorption pen disclosed in the above publication. The conventional adsorption pen has a body 300 and a head 400 extending from the body 300. The head 400 has an adsorption port 21 which is in contact with the object which is intended to be adsorbed. The body 300 has a cylinder 23 which is connected through a passage 22 to the adsorption port 21 in the head 400. The cylinder 23 has a piston 24, a piston rod 26, and a contraction spring 25. A first face of the piston 24 faces toward the passage 22 and the adsorption port 21, whilst a second face of the piston 24 is connected with the piston rod 26. The contraction spring 25 has a first end which is fixed to the second face of the piston 24 and a second end which is fixed to a bottom end of the cylinder 23. The contraction spring 25 provides a contracting force which forces the piston 24 toward the bottom end of the cylinder 23. The body 300 further has a ratchet stopper mechanism which comprises a pair of ratchet stoppers 28a, a pair of levers 29, 30 and a single push button 31. Each of the ratchet stoppers 28a has an alignment of plural ratchets in parallel to the piston rod 26. Each of the ratchet stoppers 28a is connected to the piston rod 26 fixed to the piston 24, so that the ratchet stoppers 28a show coupling motions to the piston rod 26 fixed to the piston 24. Each of the levers 29, 30 has a first end connected to the push button 31 and a second end having a ratchet 28b which is engaged with any one of the plural ratchets of the ratchet stoppers 28a when the push button 31 is not pushed, so that the engagement of the ratchets 28b of the levers 29, 30 with the ratchets of the ratchet stoppers 28a stops the motion of the piston rod 26 fixed to the piston 24 toward the bottom of the cylinder 23 even though the contraction spring 25 remains to provide a contracting force which forces the piston 24 toward the bottom end of the cylinder 23. If the push button 31 is pushed, the ratchets 28b of the levers 29, 30 are disengaged from the ratchets of the ratchet stoppers 28a to allow motion of the piston rod 26 fixed to the piston 24 toward the bottom of the cylinder 23 due to the contracting force by the contraction spring 25, whereby a cylinder internal space is formed which is defined by an inner wall of the cylinder 23 and the first face of the piston 24, and thus the adsorption port 21, the passage 22 and the cylinder internal space are placed into a vacuum state. One push of the push button 31 disengages one of the ratchets of the ratchet stopper 28a from the ratchet 28b connected with the lever 29 thereby to move the piston rod 26 and the piston 24 toward the bottom end of the cylinder 23 by the contracting force by the contraction spring 25 but subsequently and automatically the next one of the ratchets of the ratchet stopper 28a is then engaged with the ratchet 28b connected with the lever 29 thereby to stop the motion of the piston rod 26 and the piston 24. Further, the body 300 has a handle 27 at its bottom portion for handling the adsorption pen.
The conventional adsorption pen is disadvantageous in the following viewpoint. It is necessary for a user to not only grip the handle 27 but also push the push button 31 to operate the conventional adsorption pen, for which reason the conventional adsorption pen is inconvenient in operability thereof. This disadvantage in inconvenient operability is likely to cause miss-operations of the conventional adsorption pen in adsorption and release to an object to be adsorbed such as wafers, pellets cut from a wafer and IC packages with sealed pellets. This object will hereinafter be referred to as xe2x80x9cworkxe2x80x9d. Once the conventional adsorption pen is miss-operated in adsorption and release to the work, it is possible to drop the work and break the same.
In the above circumstances, it had been required to develop a novel adsorption pen free from the above problem.
Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to provide a novel adsorption pen free from the above problems.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide a novel adsorption pen which is convenient in operability.
The present invention provides an adsorption pen for adsorbing and releasing an article comprising: a body; a contact head coupled with the body and having an adsorption pad being in contact tightly with the article for forming an internal space defined by the adsorption pad and the article, and the adsorption pad having at least a bendable and contractible elastic portion which is deformable to reduce a volume of the internal space, thereby to reduce an internal pressure of the internal space upon application of a pushing force to the body toward the article; a valve mechanism for switching the internal space between a close-state where the internal space is separated by the valve mechanism from the atmospheric pressure and an open-state where the internal space has the atmospheric pressure; and a knock mechanism connected to the valve mechanism for placing the valve mechanism into the close-state upon both operations of applying a pushing force to the body toward the article and subsequently making the body free from application of the pushing force, so that the adsorption pad adsorbs the article due to the reduced internal pressure of the internal force and also for placing the valve mechanism into the open-state upon applying the pushing force to the body again, so that the adsorption pad releases the article.
The above and other objects, features and advantages of the present invention will be apparent from the following descriptions.